Centuries ago, people believed your heart controlled actions, emotions, and thoughts. When Egyptian pharaohs were mummified, organs considered vital for the after-life were preserved. Embalmers routinely discarded the brain – supposing it only served as “fill material” for the head.
Greek doctors began to suspect the brain helped people think and sense the world around them via taste, sight, and hearing. The Romans credited the brain with learning capabilities. But not until the last two centuries did people realize the importance and complexity of the brain.
Electric Power
Your brain continually sends and receives electrical impulses, producing enough electrical energy to power the light bulb in your refrigerator. As the control center for your body, your brain processes multiple functions simultaneously.
Just what does your brain control?
- Senses (touch, sight, hearing, taste, smell)
- Movement and coordination
- Hormones (regulating growth; glucose, adrenalin, and calcium levels; sense of cold or heat)
- Thought and consciousness (including problem solving, emotions, judgment)
- Body functions (including breathing, heart beat, digestion)
- Memory and dreams (including language, reading)
…And When You Add Alcohol
When you have a drink, your stomach absorbs about 20 percent of the alcohol. The remaining 80 percent is absorbed in your small intestines. Once in your bloodstream, the alcohol is carried to all parts of your body, including your brain.
Alcohol causes a chemical wash on the transmitters and receptors, altering the speed of your brain’s electrical activity. No part of your brain is immune to the affects of alcohol, but some parts of your brain are more sensitive to its effects.
In some people, alcohol speeds up the electrical impulses resulting in excitability, anger, or violence. Most people say a drink relaxes them and makes them happy. In reality, the alcohol has slowed down brain activity in the part of the brain responsible for sensing, inhibition, and thought processing.
With just one or two drinks, you may have experienced:
- Increased self-confidence
- Loss of inhibitions
- Decreased judgment
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- Lessened awareness of the world around you
- Increased threshold for pain
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If you keep drinking, you’ll experience:
- Exaggerated emotions
- Memory loss
- Reduction of fine motor skills such as touching your finger to your nose
- Reduction of gross motor skills such as balance
- Slowed reaction time
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- Skin flushing, sweating
- Sexual arousal, but with decreased sexual performance
- Increased urination
- Sleepiness
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If you continue drinking beyond this point, you’ll probably pass out (become unconscious). If you have too much alcohol in your blood, your involuntary body functions will start to shut down:
- Slowed breathing
- Drop in blood pressure
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- Drop in body temperature
- Possible death
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Alcohol will continue to interfere with the normal functioning of your brain and body until it’s eliminated from your body.
How Much Is Too Much?
Alcohol affects people differently. The recommendation is that women drink no more than one beer (or equivalent) daily, and that men limit themselves to two beers daily. That may even be too much for you. Various factors cause alcohol to be absorbed and processed differently, including age, body mass, general health, and heredity.
Use caution when drinking, or consider drinking non-alcoholic versions of your favorite beverage. |
